Mata and Grifone

To explain the origin of these strange names, the inhabitants of Messina have created a fabulous story, a kind of genealogical drama. Generally , the two giants are identified with the mythical founders ofMessina, who lived at the time of the Saracen domination of the island, which is considered the foundational period. This fiction serves to integrate the Arab period into the history of the city and to mitigate the issue of religious conflict. To this end, Mata is identified with a beautiful commoner in the district of Messina Camaro or with a local princess “subjected” (through  kidnapping or the moving account of a conversion) by a Moorish king of superhuman size given to cannibalism: the giantess would “tame” the fury of the Saracen warrior and be spared death and suffering of her people.

In the story of a gigantaro (the manufacturer of the giants), a native of Messina, which has contributed to the spread, in the last century, of the festive puppets in neighboring Calabria, the legend undergoes an interesting variation: the union between the two giants ends badly, with the  killing of Grifone, struck by the sling of a shepherd (the new David) and the suicide of Mata. This story could be the basis of a different genealogy of the Sicilian giants, similar to that of many northern European born puppets who were born to represent “the game” of David and Goliath, or proof of a European circulation of interpretative models.